Right so now its time for the men's 4th round and quarter final matches from the US Open over days 9 and 10. So let's get started with this un....
OK so start off we had Grigor Dimitrov, who was tipped as a hot favourite to do very well here and was up against the flashy and talented French player, Gael Monfils, so it promised to be an entertaining match and one which still favoured Grigor. However it turned out to be quite the opposite as Monfils stunned Dimitrov by turning the match on its head and he took the first set with a break, the 2nd set on the tiebreak 8-6, and he went on to win the 3rd set with another break to reach the quarter finals with a surprising 7-5, 7-6, 7-5 victory. This was quite an upset from Monfils who has shown in the past that he can go on a hot streak in the big events and he certainly did so here with Dimitrov and beneath all of that flash there is indeed some serious substance as well and moving into the quarter finals Monfils could well be dangerous for who he plays next.
And the player he would be up against next would be the winner of the match between Roger Federer and Roberto Bautista-Agut. Agut is a player that has started to announce himself this year on the tour and he had already claimed one or two big scalps in earlier in the season such as beating Tomas Berdych in Indian Wells so he could be considered a dangerous outsider. But then again he was playing Roger Federer and Rog himself had no trouble whatsoever against the Spaniard and instead made him look pretty ordinary with his skill and class and he ended up sweeping past Agut in straight sets with a comfortable straight set win of 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Well there really was no question of who would win this one and right enough it was Roger who claimed it very comfortably in the end. And it has to be said that so far even though Rog has been looking pretty good he also has had quite a cosy draw and it makes you wonder just how he will respond to being really tested by the top players. But we do know one thing about Roger and that is he is the greatest player to have played the game so he knows a thing or two about taking on tricky opponents so regardless I think Rog might still be on course for the final. And with Monfils next he will be given a bit of a test but and it will be a very entertaining match but in the end I think Rog will come through in four sets.
So in other matches Tomas Berdych took on the talented youngster Dominic Thiem in what potentially could have been a real test for the Czeck No.1. But in the end Berdych showed his experience and class and outplayed Thiem and defeated him with great ease in straight sets to reach the quarter finals with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win. And lastly we had Marin Cilic who took on the Frenchman, Gilles Simon in what was a real battle and Cilic had never beaten Simon before in their previous four meetings. However that was all set to change as both men hammered it out over five sets and in the end it was Cilic that came through with a break in the 5th set sealing his first ever win over Simon and reaching his 3rd quarter final in New York with a 5-7, 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win. This was a great win for Cilic who had never beaten Simon prior to this encounter and it shows under his new coaching from Goran Ivansevic that he is showing great form this year and more belief that he can go deep in the big events so Cilic might yet go all the way.
Now onto day 10 which had the blockbuster billing of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray as the night match but I'll get to that one in a bit. So first I will look at what transpired to be the match of the day between Stan Wawrinka, the reigning Australian open champion and Kei Nishikori of Japan. Stan went into this match as the favourite as he had never lost to Nishikori before and beaten him in straight sets both times. However this match was a completely different thing altogether as both men engaged in an intense battle on Arthur Ashe stadium as they both locked horns for over four hours. Stan started off his perfect run of sets against Kei in the first as he took it with a break, but Kei soon fought back to level the match at a set all and went on to nab the 3rd set on a tiebreak to take the two sets to one lead. But Stan was not to be outdone and went on to push the match to a decider by taking the 4th set tiebreak, but in the 5th it was Kei that pulled off an amazing upset by stunning Stan with a five set victory winning in 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 to reach his first grand slam semi final. This was a terrific contest between both men and it was sheer testament to Kei's determination and skill tht he was able to come through this match after having to battle past Milos Raonic in the round before also five sets. And with two whole days off before Kei needs to play again he should be well recovered enough to play for the semis on Saturday.
So..... now we get to the match of the night, which was the blockbuster between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, the former and current Wimbledon champions respectively in what promised to be an epic duel similar to their five set marathon back in the 2012 final. The match itself however didn't quite live up to its billing but for the most part the audience on Arthur Ashe were still treated to a thrilling contest between two of the game's biggest current rivals. And in the first two sets both men traded breaks of serve as well as some jaw droppingly intense rallies which wowed the New York crowd and they shared the first two sets on a tiebreak, with Nole winning the first and Andy the second. However in the 3rd set Nole started to assert his authroity on the match and Andy's intensity started to drop as he began to struggle physically with trying to keep up the pace, which saw him surrendered the set with a double break. In the 4th set Andy restored parity on serve until 4-5 when he was serving to stay in, it was clearly a set too far at this point as Nole had physically worn down his old foe which saw Andy eventually surrender his serve to end his US Open campaign and the Serb reach the last four with a gripping 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 win.
Well this wasn't quite the epic match alot of people may have hoped but it was still a largely enthralling contest between two great players. And despite the loss for Andy it showed some very encouraging signs after his bitterly disappointing defeat at Wimbledon to Dimitrov, he stepped up to the plate and for two sets he went toe to toe with the World No.1, who prior to this match in the event had never been tested. But the match did raise some concerns over Andy's physical conditioning as he clearly wasn't able to sustain the pace and keep up with Novak by the time they had played the 3rd set as the match ended with Andy's legs and hips start to stiffen up. And if Andy is to beat Novak over the best of five sets then he needs to be in perfect physical condition to do so and on the basis of this match there is still a ways to go yet for Andy before he can get back to peak physical form for the slams to contend with the world's best player and it remains to be seen if he can get back into that kind of shape in the future. But despite that it was still a gutsy and firey performance from Andy which saw him hit his forehand as about as massive as we have ever seen it and he showed high levels of aggression and intensity for the first two sets and if he was able to have maintained it then just maybe he might have had a chance.
So Andy's grand slam season has come to an end for 2014 but at least he went out giving it all he had and it was a promising sign of things to come in 2015 where he will during the interim period be able to try and get himself in even better physical shape and by then he should be able to seriously compete at the latter stages of the slams as he did before his surgery. So when you look at his year in the slams, Andy has not done badly at all as he has reached three quarter finals and one semi final, which for a man who has come back from a fairly big surgery is quite remarkable when you think about it even if the nature of his defeats at the French open and Wimbledon were particularly disappointing. Not only that, Andy also finally managed to get one monkey off his back by defeating a top 10 player in beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round at the US Open, which hopefully will also boost his confidence when taking on the other elite players in the game.
So for the remainder of the year Andy has two more tournaments scheduled to play in, the Shanghai and Paris Masters events and if he gains enough points he will be able to qualify for the ATP world tour finals in London at the end of the year. However Andy has said that qualifying to play at the o2 arena in London is not a big goal of his, so in that respect it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't qualify to play there, but we will just wait and see how Andy does in the tournaments that lie ahead which don't start until October although there is a chance he might accept a wildcard into one of the events prior to Shanghai, e.g the ATP 500 events in Beijing or Tokyo. But as it stands just now Andy will drop down to No.10 in the world again after the US Open has finished next week, which while it isn't ideal, it still keeps him inside the world's top players for now and hopefully he can gain more points to boost his ranking up further before year is over.
As for Novak well he was just too good in the end and we all know he is a remarkable physical specimen of a guy but he certainly did recognise the threat in Andy and when he finally won the match after 3 hours and 32 minutes, he didn't roar with delight like he tends to do, but instead breathed a sigh of relief, which was surely a mark of respect toward the challenge his opponent had given him. And for me Nole remains firmly on course as the favourite to lift the title in New York, with Roger a close second, but I just think in terms of fitness, defence, offence, speed and court coverage, just who can live with Novak Djokovic out there??? Just about no one! But we shall soon find out what happens.
Right so that's it for now and I will be back with more results soon in the next couple of days.
Bye for now.
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